MOTHER’S HELP.—“_I am twenty-six, and for the last six years have occupied, at a very small salary, a situation—or rather three situations—as mother’s help. I am heartily tired of being neither one thing nor another, and wish I knew some way of qualifying myself for some less wearing and more remunerative work. I have thought of entering the Norland Institute to be trained for a children’s nurse, but I fear I am not well enough educated. Typewriting I have also considered, as that would leave me the evenings free for study. I should be willing to spend a little time and money on some sort of training._—PERPLEXED.”
Our correspondent has come to a most sensible decision, and we wish that some of our readers could profit by her experience that such positions as those of mother’s help, useful companion, etc., are “neither one thing nor another.” “Perplexed” tells us in her letter, which we have not published in its entirety, that she understands the management of children, and can make their clothes well. Under these circumstances it seems to us that she hardly needs to undergo a full course of training to become a children’s nurse. But what she lacks at present is some knowledge of the treatment a baby requires, and some general experience of infantile ailments and their cure. As “Perplexed” lives in Scotland we would suggest that she should try to obtain by payment some short course of training in a hospital of a special character. The Glasgow Maternity Hospital, 37, North Portland Street, Glasgow, offers an arrangement which might suit the case. Pupils are received for a course of sixteen weeks for £13 13s. 6d. This pays all expenses except laundry and uniform. Possessed of such experience as this, and having been in attendance on children before, “Perplexed” ought to obtain some fairly well paid situation as children’s nurse to begin with, and could then avoid the disagreeableness of having to commence life again as an under-nurse. If Edinburgh suited “Perplexed” better, the Royal Maternity Hospital, 79, Lauriston Place, might advisably be selected. Here a course of three months’ training at a cost of £11 10s. may be entered upon on the first day of February, May, August or November in each year. Pupils have the advantage of attending lectures. Training in a children’s hospital would no doubt be preferable, because the patients would be children of all ages, but “Perplexed” could hardly enter any such institution for less than three years, and the number of applicants at these favourite hospitals is always very great. Typewriting we do not advise to “Perplexed” as it seems to us that she has many practical accomplishments which are in constant request among employers. She would therefore do better as a nurse or in some other capacity in a private household.